The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-03-20
THE UNION PACIFIC.

THE HERALD hopes there is more
than idle rumor in the current talk to
effect that General Dodge is to succeed
Mr.. Charles Francis Adams in the Pres
idency of the Union Pacific Railway.
Not that Mr.. Adams is not able and
honest, for he is undoubtedly one of the
mos capable and purest men in Amer
lea; but as president of the great trans
continental railway company he has
never shown himself to be the right
man in the right place. 1t perhaps re
quired just such man to put stop to
the recklessness which was rushing the
road on to hopeless bankruptcy, to sup
plement chaos with order, and estab-
lish responsibility for acts done. For
years before Mr.. Adams assumed
the helm the Union Pacific was man
aged with an utter disregard of railroad
wisdom, if not of ordinary good sense
and honesty. The management was
without intelligent policy, and the road
was operated in loose. go-as-you-
please style. Money was borrowed and
was spent imprudently and IMPROVE
IDENTIFY. The construction of the Oregon
Short Line is an instance of the squan-
dering of millions. 1t is believed that
Mr.. Adams did not step in day too
soon to save the road from bankruptcy
which was impending. He at once set
about it to check the extravaganza in
troduce system, and save the company;
and he succeeded so well, that to-day
the Union Pacific is one of the best
operated roads in the country; no
more extravaganza or recklessness is
seen, and system everywhere manifests
itself. But while his predecessors had
been headstrong and improvident, re-
gardless and negligent, Mr.. Adams
went to the other extreme, and in
augurated a conservatism and caution
which hurt the road in another direction
His straight-laced, New England pru-
dence, and his business wariness, have
prevented the Union Pacific gaining
advantages which it might have had
and held; after working revolution he
was afraid to advance until he could
demonstrate beyond doubt that pro
gress would be successful. The others
had opened the valve, and run
wildly under a full head of steam, heed
less of the consequences; but he put on
the brakes and sent runners ahead to
makeI sure that the track was clear.
That will do in the far east, but in the
new west we require something faster;
we are dull and sluggish if taking no
risk. 1t is development and growth
and progress which we require; a con-
servatism which never. goes beyond
absolute safety will not do in this region
and at this time. The middle course,
between the heedlessness of Gould and
Dillon, and the extreme caution of
Adams. is what the west demands, and
the Union Pacific is western
rad. In twenty-five years Mr.. Adams
would ''get there" and be firm, but
others would have been there anu gone.
We sincerely believe that General
Dodge will prove better man for the
Union Pacific, and far better one
for the country tributary to that road,
than Mr.. Adams. Dodge is western
man, and has broader views and more
enlarged ideas than the Bostonian,
while he is as honest and capable as the
latter. He will be less conservative
and more progressive and aggressive
than Adams, and will take advantage Of
opportunities which Adams would not
improve lest he should be accused of in
cautiousness. The Union Pacific is in
senS a child of General Dodge, who in
IN turn is somewhat a product of the
U. P. OF all men, he seems the right
one to stand at the head of the great
with which the destinies of
the vast interior west are so closely
linked.